Ask the Author: Tara Taylor Quinn
Answered Questions (13)
Tara Taylor Quinn
I'd go to Santa Raquel, California and work at The Lemonade Stand.
Tara Taylor Quinn
Haha, no, I don't read or write horror stories and I don't want them telling themselves in my brain!
Tara Taylor Quinn
So sorry, I just saw this. My view is this: Writing is a very personal thing - it's expression from the soul. If you need to write, then you need to write. You have to separate yourself from the noise, the world, and just write. The things you're seeing about the industry are true. They've always been true. Being a career author isn't easy. It isn't guaranteed. But if you have to write, you write. If you're meant to be published, you will be, as long as you write, but writing isn't always about being published. Write first. Worry about the rest after you've written.
Tara Taylor Quinn
Sorry I missed this! I'm writing two books this summer and working on line edits and printout of two others that are already scheduled for publication and so, sadly, that IS my summer reading. I don't read others' work when I'm writing as I'm too nervous about incorporating another voice into my own work.
Tara Taylor Quinn
I don't have a single one - with so many of them, in various genres, I generally ask what type of reading they like. Three that I feel strongly represent my work are The Third Secret, The Promise He Made Her, and Her Soldier's Baby. Thanks for asking!
Tara Taylor Quinn
I'd love to visit someday!
Tara Taylor Quinn
I'm a romance girl. I have hundreds and hundreds of fictional couples and I love them all. I have 80 and counting fictional couples that live inside me. So I'm struggling here. Right now, the only couple I can think of that stands out aside from all of the heroes and heroines who have taken me through the years, is Chandler and Monica from 'Friends.' I love how they are together. How they complete each other. She has her issues and quirks and he's the perfect offset to them. He has his issues and insecurities and she's the perfect buffer for him. Apart, they're both kind of oddly damaged and a bit weird. But together, they are a perfect couple. I love that. In my mind that is what love and marriage and being a couple is all about.
Tara Taylor Quinn
I have so many projects right now I don't know how to qualify most recent! I have two current new releases, a book out in six weeks, another one out at the end of the year and I currently have four projects that are in various stages of writing and publication, with my agent waiting on a three book proposal. The ideas just present themselves. I don't ask them where they're from.
Tara Taylor Quinn
I 'think' in story form. I hear in story form. I see in story form. I don’t just see a car accident, I feel the shaking of the driver, the worry of being in trouble. I am the person on the other end of the phone getting the call. I see plans gone awry. And wonder who was waiting for the arrival of the person who is now not going to make it. When I’m in the grocery store, I notice what other people are buying and get a picture of the person at home getting ready for a party, or sitting alone consoling herself with food, I see a widower, making it on his own because he has no other choice, and a health conscious single woman determinedly planning out and then eating every single salad. This is my challenge. My curse. And my gift.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Tara Taylor Quinn
I’m currently working on several projects. The Friendship Pact, a women's fiction from MIRA, is just out and I'm heavily involved in its promotion. In addition to the women’s fiction that I’m writing for MIRA books, I’m five books into a new Superromance series, Where Secrets Are Safe. The series revolves around a unique resort like domestic violence shelter nestled away on several acres of California coast. The second book of that series, Once a Family is releasing this week, simultaneously with The Friendship Pact. The third, Husband By Choice is out in September of this year. And the fourth, Child By Chance, is a December, 2014 release. That gives me five original new titles this year! In addition, I just had my first Manga comic book release on May 15th, an adapted version of my novel, The Birth Mother.
The fifth book in the Where Secrets Are Safe series is due this week. And the sixth is due by the end of the summer. We already have an idea flushed out for book seven as well. These books are all stand-alone stories, fully independent from each other. Some are suspenseful some are not. Some are more light-hearted than others. All of the signature ttq deeply emotional, psychological look at life.
The fifth book in the Where Secrets Are Safe series is due this week. And the sixth is due by the end of the summer. We already have an idea flushed out for book seven as well. These books are all stand-alone stories, fully independent from each other. Some are suspenseful some are not. Some are more light-hearted than others. All of the signature ttq deeply emotional, psychological look at life.
Tara Taylor Quinn
If you need to write, do it for yourself. Write the book. Make yourself sit in the chair and type. Do not let your internal editor speak a word until the book is done. Same goes for the inner critic. Just sit and write. When you have a product, then look at content, at the necessity for edits.
Then figure out what to do with it. If you want to sell it, get your work out there. And if it comes back, learn, make it what it needs to be or start on another project, and get it out there again. And again. As many times as it takes.
Bottom line, if you want to be a writer, write. Don’t ever give up. Don’t ever let someone else tell you you can’t. Just write.
Then figure out what to do with it. If you want to sell it, get your work out there. And if it comes back, learn, make it what it needs to be or start on another project, and get it out there again. And again. As many times as it takes.
Bottom line, if you want to be a writer, write. Don’t ever give up. Don’t ever let someone else tell you you can’t. Just write.
Tara Taylor Quinn
Self-fulfillment. I am a writer. When I write I reach a state of self-actualization that brings a beautiful peace.
Tara Taylor Quinn
I don't believe in it. I know that when the words aren't flowing, I have to get out of my own way. If I can't write it's because I'm allowing something else to take control of my mind. I ask myself if I really want to write that day, and if the answer is yes, I sit down and start to type. The words that come first might be garbage, but they open the door to that place where my writer voice exists.
If I ask the question and find that I don't really want to write that day, but I have to because I am on deadline, I try to get to a relaxed place. Heat usually does it for me and since I live in the desert, I most often just have to go outside and sit by my fountain for a while and let the sun wash over me.
If I ask the question and the answer is no, and it's really from the heart, I give myself the day off.
I also recognize that there are times when I am writing, working, but not ready to put words to the page. On those days I allow myself to think, to focus, on whatever comes to mind, but I don't force myself to type.
If I ask the question and find that I don't really want to write that day, but I have to because I am on deadline, I try to get to a relaxed place. Heat usually does it for me and since I live in the desert, I most often just have to go outside and sit by my fountain for a while and let the sun wash over me.
If I ask the question and the answer is no, and it's really from the heart, I give myself the day off.
I also recognize that there are times when I am writing, working, but not ready to put words to the page. On those days I allow myself to think, to focus, on whatever comes to mind, but I don't force myself to type.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more