Tips from Tara Lain

Tara Lain never met a beautiful boy she didn’t love – at least on paper. A writer of erotic romance, mostly ménage and male/male, Tara loves all her characters, but especially her handsome heroes. A lifelong writer of serious non-fiction, Tara only fell in love with EROM in 2009 and, through perseverance and lots of workshops, had the first novel she ever wrote published in January of 2011. After an exotic life of travel all over the world and work in television, education and advertising, Tara settled in Southern California with her soul-mate husband and opened her own small marketing business. She paints, collages, and started practicing yoga “way before it was fashionable”. Passionate about diversity, justice, inclusion and new ideas, she says on her tombstone it will read, “Yes”.

Tips from a (Kind of ) New Writer

I’m delighted to be here at MM Good Book Reviews celebrating a grand and successful launch for the new site. As you may know, I’m a pretty new author. My first book, Genetic Attraction, came out in January of 2011. I’ve published two books since then and have three more coming out between now and New Year’s. I write the Beautiful Boys of Romance, mostly M/M , M/M/M, and M/M/F novels largely in a contemporary setting. Here are a few things I’ve learned since I started a short time ago.

  • Heroes can never be too beautiful. I know it’s fun to have heroines that have a real-world quality , but heroes just have to be yummy (even if confused and angst ridden). In my books, there always seems to be at least one hero who is unearthly beautiful. Roan Black in The Scientist and the Supermodel and Genetic Attraction is a heart-stopper. Trelain Medveyev in my upcoming release Golden Dancer (September 27) is exquisitely beautiful and a great ballet dancer as well. Other authors may write “everyman” quite wonderfully, but I like my beautiful boys.
  • Menage is a very fun dynamic as long as all the participants have a real depth of feeling. I’ve written two m/m/f ménages and two m/m/m ménages (Golden Dancer is a M/M/M meange) as is my current novella, Volley Balls. Same rule applies.
  • Deep point-of-view, where you are locked into the character’s thoughts, feelings and viewpoint completely, is the whole deal in creating a great story. The reader will feel cheated if the author doesn’t use DPOV, though they may not know why. DPOV is hard! It takes practice and rewrite.
  • All conflict is internal to start, but a great external villain can sure make a plot go easier. In Golden Dancer, I even have a son-of-a-Nazi!
  • I’m part plotter and part pantser (seat-of-the-pants writer). A plotser? I seldom write plot outlines, but I do plan out the story in my head before I write. The rest just happens.
  • I can write 2,000 words a day easily, and 3,000 or more if I push. Two to three thousand means I can still eat, sleep, and work.
  • Characters grab you and won’t let go til their story is told. I have three books in one series and there may be a fourth, because the characters just keep talking. My recent release Volley Balls is calling to me now. I think another story will be set in that beach town world.
  • Ideas for stories come from everywhere. I created a ballet-themed collage for a friend for Christmas last year and it inspired me to write a story with a ballet dancer hero — Golden Dancer.
  • Writing sex scenes is fun, but you have to lock into deep point of view to show the feelings or it becomes all about hands and legs and body parts, especially in a ménage!
  • Writing a M/M/M ménage in third person POV is hell on pronouns! He, he and he. LOL.
  • Because I’m a nonfiction writer in my day job, I can only write fiction at night and on the weekends if I’m passionate about the story. I’ve discovered I have a passion for passion!
  • I’m so grateful to the world of independent, digital publishing for making it possible for writers of subgenres like me to find their audience and express their creativity.
  • I’m so grateful to all the readers who have said they like my books and encouraged me to keep going. I love to write and would probably do it no matter what, but it sure is fun to have readers!

And thank you so much for inviting me here today. I love to talk to readers and am very active on the web. You can reach me here:

E-mail:                              tara@taralain.com

Website:                          http://www.taralain.com

Author blog:                   http://taralain.blogspot.com

Book blog:                       http://beautifulboysbooks.blogspot.com

Goodreads:                     http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4541791.Tara_Lain

Savvy Authors:               http://www.savvyauthors.com/vb/member.php?2398-Tara-Lain

Twitter:                           http://twitter.com/taralain

Facebook Profile:          http://www.facebook.com/people/Tara-Lain/100001514105686

Facebook Page:            http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tara-Lain/205042046209804

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